With President Obama not on the ballot in 2016, Republicans are hoping that their candidate will be able to draw
a little more of the African-American vote, maybe even enough to swing a swing state:
Obama limited Romney to 6 percent of the black vote in 2012, and his performance in 2008 had been even more dominant. That year’s Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), won only 4 percent black support, according to exit polls.
Republican nominees in other recent elections did better. President George W. Bush won 11 percent of the votes cast by blacks in 2004, and in 1996 Sen. Bob Dole won 12 percent even while going down against the incumbent, President Clinton.
The same pattern is seen in key states. In Florida, Obama won twice — with 95 percent of the black vote in 2012 and 96 percent in 2008. In 2004, then-Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) won 86 percent of the black vote in the Sunshine State, though he lost the race.
Quite a goal: "Maybe we can hit 12 percent again!" Of course, the real Republican strategy for keeping African-American votes from going to Democrats is less about winning over black voters and more about suppressing their vote to begin with, a pattern that perhaps the voters targeted by suppression efforts have noticed and gotten pissed about.